Pentagon Says Fort Hood Shooter's Dec. 3 Firing Squad Execution Will Be Livestreamed

Since the Pentagon announced Monday, Oct. 5, that President Trump approved a firing squad for Nidal Hasan, the plan has gained a major new element: the execution will be livestreamed.

A Defense Department official confirmed the livestream on Thursday, Oct. 8. "It will be livestreamed. Details will follow," the official said. The Pentagon has not said which platform will carry it.

What Hegseth said

The confirmation followed an interview in which Hegseth told Jack Posobiec of Real America's Voice that the public would be able to watch. He spoke aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln.

"It was a radical Islamist attack in uniform inside the ranks, and so he's going to get a firing squad of soldiers, as it should be, and we'll make sure that people are able to watch it, that it's public, because people need to understand that there's serious consequences for these types of things," Hegseth said.

The execution is set for 1 p.m. local time on Thursday, Dec. 3, at Fort Hood, Texas. Hegseth said the day of the week and the hour match the 2009 attack. "It's going to be soldiers with rifles executing the firing squad," he said.

Asked whether Hasan had made a final request or reached out to Trump, Hegseth answered: "Don't care. We'll see him on December 3rd."

The case

Hasan, a former Army psychiatrist and major, opened fire at the Fort Hood processing center on Nov. 5, 2009. He killed 12 soldiers and one civilian and wounded 32 others. It remains the deadliest mass shooting on a U.S. military installation.

He represented himself at his 2013 court-martial and told the jury, "the evidence will clearly show that I am the shooter." A military jury convicted him on all 45 counts in August 2013 and sentenced him to death. The Supreme Court denied his final petition in April 2025.

Hasan is one of four people on military death row at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. If the sentence is carried out, it would be the first U.S. military execution since Army Pvt. John Bennett was hanged in April 1961. It would also be the first by firing squad since Pvt. Eddie Slovik was shot for desertion in 1945.

A break with recent practice

Executions in the U.S. normally have a small gallery of witnesses, typically victims' relatives and a few reporters. The last public execution in the country appears to be the hanging of Rainey Bethea in Owensboro, Kentucky, on Aug. 14, 1936. Reports put the crowd at around 20,000.

John Mills, a lawyer who works with death-row inmates, called the livestream decision "unprecedented in the modern era" and "on uncertain legal terrain."

Sen. Chris Murphy, a Connecticut Democrat, told CNN the plan was "disgusting" and reminiscent of executions carried out by the Islamic State group.

Geoffrey Corn, a Texas Tech law professor and former Army JAG officer, said the plan "raises significant moral questions, above and beyond the questions related to the death penalty generally." He added that turning an execution into "some type of public spectacle echoes of the past we seem to have put behind us."

Not every legal scholar objects. Deborah Denno of Fordham Law said a livestream could make the process "much more transparent" and show the public what capital punishment involves. She tied that to the botched lethal injection of Christa Pike in Tennessee, which has raised fresh questions about how executions are carried out.

Survivors and the victims' side

Alonzo Lunsford, a former Army sergeant shot seven times in the attack, told the BBC he supports a firing squad as a method "befitting" the crime. He does not think everyone should be able to watch, citing the message it sends younger people. He does think the families of the fallen, the families of survivors and the survivors themselves should see it "uncensored." Lunsford said he plans to attend and wants Hasan to look at him first. "I want him to know he failed. I'm still here."

Brenner Fissell, a Villanova law professor and vice president of the National Institute of Military Justice, said firing squads can be "a quicker, cleaner, more precise way to execute a prisoner" as states struggle to obtain lethal injection drugs. He said he does not think that is what is motivating this decision. In his view, the aura Hegseth is emphasizing is a "lethality culture."

Unanswered questions

The livestream collides with existing Army execution guidelines, which state that "No person under the age of 18 shall witness the execution." The Pentagon has not said how a public stream would comply. Army regulation also calls for at least two media outlets to be selected as witnesses.

The Verge asked YouTube, Twitch, TikTok, Meta, Rumble and Kick whether they would carry the stream. None had responded before publication.

The White House referred questions about the plan to the Pentagon. It has not said whether Trump supports a public broadcast. Trump has previously condemned public executions in Iran. In January he said Iran had decided not to hang protesters after his warnings, and the warnings preceded his late-February decision to attack Iran.

Hegseth also claimed in the interview that Barack Obama called the attack "workplace violence." There is no record of Obama using that phrase. The Pentagon did initially classify the shooting as workplace violence, which affected the victims' eligibility for Purple Hearts and combat-related benefits. A review led by former FBI Director William Webster concluded the bureau should have investigated Hasan's emails with cleric Anwar al-Awlaki more thoroughly. Investigators found 18 of them.

What could still delay it

Hasan could file a habeas petition in civilian court, which experts say could significantly delay the execution. "It frankly might outlast the current administration, and who knows if the next one will have the same penchant for executions," said Eugene Fidell, a Yale Law School lecturer specializing in military law.

CBS News said it had asked Hasan's attorney for comment. The Pentagon has promised more details on the livestream. Whether a court gets involved before Dec. 3 is the open question.